Ben's Homecoming

Good-bye 8th grade

Ben, Kenzie and Josh

Ben graduated from 8th grade this week. The school held a small ceremony and sent them on their way to high school.

BIG NEWS...

We are pleased to announce that after reviewing your application you have been selected to participate in our Cambridge AICE program.

I know you are wondering what exactly that means... Well, Ben got into the Honors program for High School!

AICE is The University of Cambridge Advanced International Certificate of Education program at Oasis High School. These courses are demanding pre-university courses that emphasize higher order thinking,oral and writing skills as well as problem solving, teamwork and investigative skills.

Students in the AICE program can earn up to 30 college credits while in high school and are eligible for the Florida Bright Futures Scholarship Program.

We are very proud of him. He has worked hard to adjust back to public school after 4 years of homeschooling. Schoolwork doesn't come easy to Ben and he really has to work hard at it. We knew he had it in him and we are glad to see he is being recognized for his efforts.

CONGRATULATIONS BEN!

Ben's Ear/Nose/Throat Dr. Visit

Just got back from the ENT doctor and he checked Ben over and said his nose is NOT broken. He said the Hospital mis-diagnosed him.

The xray that I was shown in the hospital clearly showed a break in the nose, I guess at this point I am not sure whose nose I was looking at. He said that 8 out of 10 people who come to see him for a broken nose are mis-daignosed.

HUH? We were floored by this. So not only did the hospital get the xray wrong but they did not catch the concussion either.

VERY SCARY.

Don't get me wrong...I am very happy that Ben does not have a broken nose, but very afraid of ever having to trust a hospital ER room again.

More news, the headaches and the dizziness have gone also so he is good to go to school tomorrow.

Smiles, Lynne

Update on Ben

Ben and his buddy Joey at the hospital. Joey rushed over as soon as the game was done.

We had a Doctor visit yesterday with Ben's regular doctor and he suggested that we see an ear nose throat specialist on Tuesday(the swelling should be down by then) and they will look inside his nose to see if there is any damage to the septum. I'm not really sure what that is but I think it is important.

Ben is in a lot of pain and has a constant headache. He had a pretty bad concussion and the headache was to be expected. The vomiting stopped after about 8 hours but he is still having bleeding off and on.

Ben's good friend Joey spent the day with him yesterday and slept over last night, which was nice because I could relax a bit and get some sleep finally knowing that there was someone with him if he had trouble.

There was a big baseball tournament nearby this morning so I took Ben and Joey to go watch for a while and Ben lasted only about a half hour before he began to get dizzy and feel ill. This has me worried a bit but the doctor said he may need to lay down for a week or so with such trauma to the head.

I will update again on Tuesday after the Dr. visit or if anything changes.

Yes...another ER visit

Ben getting a CAT scan

Ben waiting for the xray guy to come get him

Waiting to be seen in the Emergency room.

I know it has been a while since I have blogged about an ER visit, so here goes.

Ben had a HS game today and he was the catcher. He was making a great play in the 2nd inning, tagging out the runner coming home when the runner picked his knee up and slammed Ben in the face breaking his nose. Ben was down for quite a while on the field. The blood seemed endless. Once he got his bearings back, he asked to stay in the game. He played the next 4 innings and then began to vomit over and over. I took him to the closest hospital near the field and they did a CAT scan and took xrays of his face.

Nose was broken(thankfully it is still straight...so far) and his brain had no swelling or bleeding...thank God!

The boy who knee'd him was immediately thown out of the game and I heard that the coach went over and took his jersey off his back...I like that coach.

The opposing coach said Ben could play for his team anytime.

We were very impressed at Ben's strength and courage...getting hit in the nose is not pleasant but he did not want to let his team down.

We are very proud of him.

This is Ben at first after the incident. Click on the picture and you can see the gauze roll stuck up his nose...eewww. It didn't stay long because the volume of blood was too strong.
Just such a typical Ben moment. nothing interferes with baseball.

Smiles, Lynne

Ben meeting Aiden

Ben had a rare night off so we took advantage and went to visit Baby Aiden.

He was very surprised at just how small he was once! Aiden is slightly bigger than Ben's foot!

**Lauren met Aiden the day he was born, however she has had a cold, so no pictures of them till she feels well enough to hold him.

Ben's Big Day

Today is the first game for the Oasis High School Baseball team...ever!

Ben (an 8th grader) will be the starting pitcher.

This was an exciting morning because the team must wear a shirt and tie on game day and it has been a while...since kindergarten actually, that Ben has worn a tie.

He looks very handsome and so grown up!

I will get some game photos and a picture of him on the mound this afternoon.
Game time is 4pm vs. South Fort Myers.

Have a great day!
Smiles, Lynne

Ben's movie clip

As I mentioned in the earlier post, Ben was an extra in a friends movie this past weekend.
Dany's Mom sent me the link to the clip that was filmed. She also mentioned how funny it was that Ben was in the shot the entire time and Danny was hardly in it at all! Danny is the boy in the red shirt being grabbed right at the beginning of the clip.

This link will take you right to the clip. Just click on the arrow to play it.

http://www.youtube.com/user/starlightfusion

Ben's film debut

Yesterday Ben got a call from a friend who is an actor and model here in South Florida(They play baseball and go to school together). Danny has been filming a movie for the past few months and they needed extras for a pool party scene being filmed today, so Ben got to experience something completely out of his element, not to mention a day at the pool with girls in bathing suits was too good to pass up! They said he did really well. Hopefully he won't be asking for an agent anytime soon!

Here are some of the still shots they took.
Danny is in the Red shirt.








Smiles, Lynne

Ben's discovery!

My son has entered a new phase of life.

GIRLS!

Ben has just started to notice that girls are on the planet. He has realized that hanging out with girls is fun.

During the baseball tournament, when all the boys were running around and drowning each other in the hotel pool, Ben was with a teammates sister (15yrs old). They just swam and talked the whole time we were there. Her mom says that she really thinks Ben is nice. He sure did act a whole lot more mature than the goofballs in the pool.

Now we have a new neighbor who is 11yrs old and they have become fast friends, hanging out at our pool and they watched a movie together on Saturday night (with her mom).

This is a very new place for me. I am ok with it so far. Ben does seem to be more mature than the other boys his age. I am enjoying this new side of him.

I'll keep you all posted on this new Ben. He sure is growing up.
I am sad (a little).

Smiles, Lynne

Who is that guy?

What a difference a haircut makes! Cutting Ben's hair made me sad. I liked his blond curls. He was not happy when I was cutting but after he was happy that it was gone. He really had a great attitude towards it. His hair was such a big part of him, I still have to do a double take to make sure it's Ben now. I didn't expect it to be so dark though.

Smiles, Lynne

New Pictures!

I managed to get a few new pictures of the kids today.

Now, these two know that when I say it's time to take pictures that it will be about 2 hours of "turn like this" or " why aren't you smiling?" so as you can guess neither of them wanted to participate.



I did manage to get a few good ones although I will probably re-do the ones of them together.

Ben's arm update

We just got back from the Dr.'s office and it looks as though Ben's arm has not healed very much.

The x-ray does show change, just not very much. Dr. Cardone had Ben bend his arm at the elbow, hand to the sky and the Dr. pulled Ben's forearm back and it still hurt quite a bit.

So, for now he is on another 4 weeks of no throwing. We will go back for another set of x rays on the 25th of March to see if any progress is being made.

The good news is that because Ben has been doing so well with NOT throwing, he does not need a cast for the 4 weeks. Yippee.

Rob could not make it to the appt. because of work so Dr. Cardone was so nice to have a second set of xrays made for us to bring home. What a nice guy! With all Ben's injuries, they should be nice to me, I'm sure I have at least paid a couple of his mortgage payments! I really like them at that office.

There you have it! Smiles, Lynne

Lauren's fun day

Lauren trying her first Ramp at the Skate Park
Lauren got very brave, very quicklyLauren has been asking for a few weeks to try the skate park near our house.

So while Ben went to his Fall Baseball Tryouts with Rob, I decided to let her give it a try yesterday. She was really good at it. She was very happy to have found something fun for herself. She is so used to doing whatever Ben does. It was nice to see her having fun on her own.

Speaking of Ben's tryouts, he is having a tough time deciding between two different teams.

The first team is Infinity--that's the team he played for last year. The Coach is not my favorite person(he doesn't help them grow, he teaches the same stuff every practice and he's not very personable). But Ben has lots of friends on that team and they do have talent.

The other team is new and is older kids(13:U). This coach is terrific. He is full of energy and really gets the kids motivated and works them hard during practice. The practices are like High School baseball. The issue is that not knowing the kids yet, we don't know their talent level or how well they can behave yet. Being a new team, it's hard to jump in not knowing.

I think Ben is leaning on moving up to the 13:U team but it's hard to say goodbye to friends he's played with for 4 seasons now. We are leaving it up to him.

Smiles, Lynne

Ben is heading to Maine!

Rob and I have decided to let Ben go to Maine on August 2nd to the 13th with my mother.
Ben is so excited. He hasn't been on an airplane since he was 3 or 4 yrs old and he can't wait.

He will be staying with my sister Tracey and he will get to visit with his Grammie as much as possible (they live near each other).

Here is a list of what he wants to do in Maine:

• See Family
• Go to a Sea Dogs Game(no shock there)
• Eat New England Clam Chowder
• Snowboard (yes, we did learn about seasons, but living with 365 of sunshine seems to have warped his brain a little. I will let him find out for himself why this may not happen in August!)
• Sleep in Aunt Tracey's basement(both my kids think stairs in your house is a sign of wealth)
• Eat an Italian sandwich
• Play baseball with his cousin Kyle
• Eat Pier fries
• Eat at Harmons Hamburgers(this one is killing me)

Ben could not be going if it weren't for a couple of angels who helped him out with money and housing. A special thank you to those people.

Ben will be spending his 12th Birthday there, I feel sad, but I'm not sure if it's because I'll miss him or that I won't have a reason to eat cake ......

Maine...Get Ready....

Smiles, Lynne

Ben

Well, that's it. Ben's team lost 4-3 last night in their final game of the All-Stars. They played well, but none of our "big hitters" did anything at the plate. Ben got a single his first time at bat. His second time he was patient and walked. Then he got up to bat again at the top of the 6th with a guy on 1st and 3rd and 1 out. A single would have tied the game anything better we would have won. You could see the excitement in Ben's eyes. He lives for moments like that. He got to the plate and they called for an intentional walk, he never even got to swing the bat. The next guy up hit the ball to the 2nd baseman who stepped on 2nd and threw to 1st for the double play. Game over.

I took this photo of Ben's single.

Well, Ben had a fun time and so did we.
Smiles, Lynne

Ben in the newspaper

Ben Tracy (left) of the Cape Coral American South Little League All-Star team tags out Cade Gray of South Fort Myers at second base. South Fort Myers won the game 23-0 at Rutenberg Park. All-Star tournament play continues Monday.

I can't believe that Ben's team lost 23-0 and he still makes it into the paper. Notice how well he blocked 2nd base. I guess he thinks he has on his catchers gear.

Smiles, Lynne

Ben's All Star Game

Ben's All Star Team played this morning and lost 23-0. Wow, what a tough game to sit through not to mention that it was already 90+ degrees at 10 am.

The team he played was all huge kids. They hit 5 homeruns for over half their total score. You can't defend homeruns.

Ben only got 1 at bat and hit a double. The ball hit the top of the centerfield fence. He was next up when they called the game in the 4th inning due to too many runs(thank goodness).

Ben was the starting catcher, then he was moved to short stop then to pitcher then to first base.

His team plays again on Monday night. If the win they would move on to the next round, if they loose they would be done for the season.

This Picture is Ben and his good friend Mikey.

Ben was playing first and Mikey had just given up a homerun so Ben went to give him some support. Ben had given up a homer in the previous inning.

What I love about Ben is that even at 23-0 He never stopped smiling. He had a good time. That's why we do what we do for him. He has a great attitude.

Smiles, Lynne